Im in the final stage of the trip now and have decided to spend my last few days in LA after a quick tour around a few places including San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego. The Santa Monica area of LA has a great atmosphere in the evenings and all the shops are open till 11pm so I have not been able to resist the temptation of buying a few clothes as its loads cheaper than England. Ive done the typical LA thing today and went out on some roller blades. Af...

After being greeted at the airport by fijians singing and dancing the bula dance I checked into my hotel. I was with 2 girls Id met in Australia for the first week and so the next morning I set off on a 2 week island hopping trip to the Yasawa islands - it is only a 30 minute boat trip to the first island and the scenery along the way is fantastic with crystal clear waters and you go past really small idiallic islands like the one in the picture. A tiny boat meet...

It took a bit of climbing to get there but once you climb up to the viewpoint you see the best view ive seen since ive been away - the Great Barrier Reef. If I was coming back here again I would take a flight over the area and see it from the air as it would Im sure be well worth the money. The snorkelling around the reef was spectacular with all the vibrant colours and shapes of the coral. Its like seeing a whole new world and you could stay under the wa...

Well unfortunately I have no photographic evidence of me standing up on the wave but you will have to believe me when I say I stayed up for a good 10 seconds - the camera could not come out with me! Some of you will find that very hard to believe knowing that my co-ordination skills are not normally the best but with a board this big it was achievable. The surf instructors (who were very hunky!) tow you on the back of their board across the bay to where the wav...

Ive been in Sydney a week now and it would be very easy to stay another week or two or three. Im going to force myself to leave on Tuesday though and head up towards Bryon Bay. Ive bought a hop on / hop off greyhound bus pass that takes you all the way up to Cairns so its very flexible which is why I keep delaying leaving here! Ive been all around an seen the opera house / harbour bridge etc and it looks really good in the evening in particular. Bondi B...